Word to the Wise
Saturday, February 1, 2025 - Saturday in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 11:1-2, 8-19 and Mark 4:35-41]A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet, be still!" The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" They were filled with awe and said to one another, "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" [Mark]
Don't we all wish we could control the weather? The Gospel According to Mark gives us two instances when Jesus calms the weather! We have the one today and then there is the one after the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, when Jesus not only calms the weather but walks on the water! [Mark 6:45-52] But neither of these events seems to lead to the conclusion that he is the Son of God. We are told, after the second time, that the disciples not only failed to "get it" after the loaves/fishes event and the walking on the water storm-calming event that "on the contrary, their hearts were hardened!" [Mark 6:52] Are the disciples obtuse or blind or whatever?
The answer to this is in the overall "agenda" of the Gospel According to Mark. The "proof" of Jesus' divinity is not in the miracles but in the cross and empty tomb! The miracles have to be seen in the light of Jesus' death and resurrection. The disciples were typical first century Palestinian Jews. There would be only one God and that God was not asleep on a cushion in a rocking boat. The disciples didn't wake Jesus to calm the storm. They just needed "all hands on board!" Jesus asks them a big question: "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" Their response shows that their "faith" was still very small: "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" Are we in that same boat? How great is our faith, especially when the "weather" gets rough? The disciples would only "get it" when Jesus appears to them after his resurrection! How many "miracles" does it take for US to "get it?" AMEN